Track day at Area27 (With video!)
Posted: Jul 25th, 2017, 10:13 am
So I attended a track day hosted by August Motors. I knew I would be completely outclassed before going, telling everyone that I guarantee I will be the slowest car there.
And as far as outright vehicle ability I doubt I was far off... I got lined up behind a 2017 WRX STI, 2016 Panamera Turbo S, 2017 BMW M4 GTS, behind me was a Mk2 Jetta 1.8T, Audi TTRS, Roushe Mustang, 2017 Miata, another WRX STI, Merc SL500, etc...
I drove my little 1985 Camaro Z28 with a carb'd 350 with clapped out suspension and stock horrible brakes to the limits, and I surprised not just myself but quite a few of those faster cars The Panamera actually waved me past at one point, and except for one (the 2017 Miata) not a single car caught up to me during the 5 lap sessions... it was me behind the pace car, or me behind that Miata... basically had the track to myself!! The only things going wrong for me was the lack of brakes, I had barely any brakes to start with they just suck... then fade made it worse... and the carb was starving for fuel in hard cornering, which is almost every corner, so I wasn't able to rotate the car with the throttle like I wanted, I had to yaw at the steering wheel a bit to get the understeer to stop.
Brake dust after only 8 laps:
The experience was just awesome. 5 sessions with ~5-6 laps each, which honestly doesn't sound like much until you have brakes as bad as mine, and I had almost no brakes for the last 3 sessions of the day...
Apologies for the shaky video, apparently a GPS mount doesn't quite have the stability needed to record smooth video.. if it's too shaky I'm sorry!
Video of a 12 minute complete session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTFvWH91Vds
Shorter video of me following the pace car (RX8 with sticky tires and suspension/brake work)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef2hs4GfE9k
At the end of the day, somehow my old and tired Camaro being driven to pretty much max potential held off a ~230hp+ 1.8T Mk2 Jetta and a myriad of other cars at least over the course of ~5 laps at a time
And as far as outright vehicle ability I doubt I was far off... I got lined up behind a 2017 WRX STI, 2016 Panamera Turbo S, 2017 BMW M4 GTS, behind me was a Mk2 Jetta 1.8T, Audi TTRS, Roushe Mustang, 2017 Miata, another WRX STI, Merc SL500, etc...
I drove my little 1985 Camaro Z28 with a carb'd 350 with clapped out suspension and stock horrible brakes to the limits, and I surprised not just myself but quite a few of those faster cars The Panamera actually waved me past at one point, and except for one (the 2017 Miata) not a single car caught up to me during the 5 lap sessions... it was me behind the pace car, or me behind that Miata... basically had the track to myself!! The only things going wrong for me was the lack of brakes, I had barely any brakes to start with they just suck... then fade made it worse... and the carb was starving for fuel in hard cornering, which is almost every corner, so I wasn't able to rotate the car with the throttle like I wanted, I had to yaw at the steering wheel a bit to get the understeer to stop.
Brake dust after only 8 laps:
The experience was just awesome. 5 sessions with ~5-6 laps each, which honestly doesn't sound like much until you have brakes as bad as mine, and I had almost no brakes for the last 3 sessions of the day...
Apologies for the shaky video, apparently a GPS mount doesn't quite have the stability needed to record smooth video.. if it's too shaky I'm sorry!
Video of a 12 minute complete session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTFvWH91Vds
Shorter video of me following the pace car (RX8 with sticky tires and suspension/brake work)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef2hs4GfE9k
At the end of the day, somehow my old and tired Camaro being driven to pretty much max potential held off a ~230hp+ 1.8T Mk2 Jetta and a myriad of other cars at least over the course of ~5 laps at a time